What the Heck?

There's a book I've been wanting to read for a while now. It's called "13 Treasures" by Michelle Harrison.

But after researching about it, I think I'm going to have to get a hold of the British edition before I consider some serious reading.

In an interview, the English-born author discussed the differences between the American edition and the British one.
The title, for one thing. In Britain, the original title is "Thirteen Treasures," not "13 Treasures".
Personally, I want to know why. Do the editors think Americans find numbers more eye-catching? Being American myself, I couldn't care less whether it was "13" or "Thirteen". So why did they change it?

Ms. Harrison went on to say that in the US edition, the prologue was cut out! Why? (I seem to be asking that a lot.) Is there some sort of conspiracy against giving Americans the entire book? What can possibly be in the prologue that we can't handle?
Another thing they did was change the characters a bit, and tone down an entire chapter to be "less violent". Oh, and they took out a mention of suicide.
I'm not saying that I absolutely adore violence. It's just...it's part of the book, right? Shouldn't it stay in the book?

I can understand changing a few things in US editions, but this seems just ridiculous. It's almost as if they don't want us to read it. I wonder if they've been doing this to other British books. You know, books that I've actually read.
Have I been missing out on more than I know?

That's just jolly unsporting of them.